A Shooting in the Pit Yard;

[dazbt]

A memory “triggered” by Emleyman’s mention of Newmarket Silkstone’s darker AM420 days.

Part one.

The pit was just about on its last legs, not for the want of trying and ball breaking effort put in by all who worked to save it. Everyone employed there from canteen ladies up did their upmost to keep this poor old horse up and running, but the real fact was, there just wasn’t any coal left. The recently developed AM420 Buttock Shearer was installed in a last ditch attempt to put some high Horse Power effort into cutting the ever thinning coal section …………….. but, as is sometimes the case with even the best intended of plans, things didn’t quite progress as well as they should have. Not all the problems on this face were down to the AM420 but in fairness it was as a result of numerous niggling stoppages created by the shearer’s technological failings that caused the most frustration, none of them were major engineering failures , most instances of machine down time were actually due to the fail to safe protection devices being just a little bit too protective, that is until the major problem of this machine suddenly deciding to change haulage direction without reason and therefore totally unexpectedly. It was determined that this was as a result of an hydraulic failure but exactly why it was happening defied all logic …….. or, at least all the available logic at the time. The cumulative effect of all the problems that this face experienced resulted in a sequence of “Ass Kicking” that was amongst the most extensive and intensive that I’ve ever been involved in, most of it directed from multiple directions, the pit management, the pit engineering departments, BC Area Engineering Depts, Production Manager, Anderson senior management to director level (who were getting chewed from both their own field staff and BC at the highest level) and worst of all to live with, from the colliers themselves, and the men in the middle were Brian (Emleyman) and myself, until that is of course, that fateful day of the pit yard Magnum 44 shooting incident …………………………
Part two to follow if required.

[shropshirebloke]

Bloody 'ell Daz, this is worse than those old cliffhanger endings they used to have on the telly when I was a kid - do we really have to wait for next week's thrilling episode?

[emleyman]

Reminds me of my first visit to Newmarket, to pave the way for the AM420 installation. I’d never been there before and I didn’t know the manager. The very attractive lady receptionist was busy sewing up a pair of split trousers and ignored me completely. Also sitting in reception was a bloke in just a jumper, underpants, socks and shoes, eating a bacon butty and doing a crossword. He also completely ignored me. After a few minutes of patiently waiting and wondering what the scenario might have been had I arrived a few minutes earlier, I managed to get the receptionist to grudgingly acknowledge my presence and started to introduce myself. When I mentioned ‘Anderson Strathclyde’ and ‘AM420’, she suddenly let fly at me. She told me that AS had better get their act together sharpish because although a little fat Scottish beggar with the gift of the gab (Daz will know who I mean!) had somehow managed to convince her gullible manager that the AM420 would be the pit’s saviour, her friend who worked at Ireland Colliery had a somewhat different view of it’s potential merit! When I’d recovered from the verbal blowtorch, I told her that I thought her manager would probably know a little bit more about mining than she did (big mistake!) and asked if I might see said gullible manager. She told me that the manager wouldn’t know his arse from his elbow without her to help him find them and that she all but ran this pit herself. She told me to go and wait in the canteen and she’d let me know when the manager was free to see me. An hour and a half later I was fed up of waiting and went back to reception to tell her that I was going. I asked if I could make an appointment to see the manager the next day, if that was possible. She replied that he’d just become free and I could go in now if I wanted. I knocked on the door and went in. The bloke who had been in reception earlier was now sitting behind the managers desk, now with trousers on but still doing the crossword and with his feet up on the desk. He looked up at me, smiled, and said ‘Welcome to Newmarket. I believe you’ve met my receptionist?’

Happy days .....

[shropshirebloke]

Emleyman - have you ever thought of turning this sort of stuff into a TV script?

....BBC sunday night (a bit like a mining-themed "All Creatures Great and Small"). You've already got one avid viewer (me), but it could make great telly. I can't think of another background that offers the chance to mix comedy, drama and tragedy together while still respecting the real history.

Never mind eh - I've been thinking about writing a novel for years - the first chapter is now on its 148th rewrite....and it's still only in my head...

[dazbt]

re Emleyman's post;
"a little fat Scottish beggar with the gift of the gab"

Ah, the "Wee Cube" as he was known in his native tongue, the original seller of sand to Arabs and freezers to Eskimo, hard act to follow as the saying goes .............. and there were plenty following his acts, bless him !! As an archer Cupid wasn't even in the same class. ;D

[John]

Oct 13, 2011 14:46:38 GMT -5 shropshirebloke said:

Emleyman - have you ever thought of turning this sort of stuff into a TV script?

....BBC sunday night (a bit like a mining-themed "All Creatures Great and Small"). You've already got one avid viewer (me), but it could make great telly. I can't think of another background that offers the chance to mix comedy, drama and tragedy together while still respecting the real history.

Never mind eh - I've been thinking about writing a novel for years - the first chapter is now on its 148th rewrite....and it's still only in my head...

Probably end up with volumes and volumes of books.

Some names that come to mind, "Plonk" I was warned as a young apprentice, never ask him how he got named Plonk..... I heeded that warning, others didn't, but they did end up as 200 yard champion sprinters.. ;D
Madness.....says it all, short fat young bloke, thick as two short planks, we used to enjoy getting him "going", he could never understand what we were laughing at...
Dave Tut, Tut Smith, one of our electrical staff who stuttered real bad when under pressure. He had this compulsion to empty his tool bag near the end of a shift and count every tool he had, not once!! But several times. Another apprentice was with him, and picked a small spanner up while Tut Tut wasn't looking, hid it behind his back and slowly buried it in fines.... We still think Tut Tut is still down there looking for the spanner... ;D

Now Australia was just as bad, one of the young electricians was on his last shift before he got married. He went in the dirty side of the baths and got undressed for a shower, he was grabbed, and a dog bone was chained with some AFC chain to his ankle. A dog bone is a link that joins pan sections together, not exactly light!! The chain must have weighed a fair few pounds too. To add insult to injury, they carried him out into the pit yard and greased him down from head to toe.... ;D
He needed two large cans of hand cleaner to get all the grease off...

One last one, Manager of Clifton Colliery, Mr Bill Clements, pretty calm most of the time, but one phone call to tell him a face was broken down and the air in his office was blue, exit one phone through the window!
The joiner was always notified of a major breakdown first, so he could get a spare pane of glass ready. ;D

True stories are always the funniest. ;D

[dazbt]

and ................. still leading up to the shooting incident;

At the height of all the problems with the AM420 face there were frequent accountability (“ass kicking”) meetings held at the colliery, in the main these were constructive and resulted in positive improvement, everybody left the meetings with a ‘to do’ list, Anderson’s list was always twice as long as everybody else’s. These get-togethers were usually amicable but deadly serious, representatives from all departments were involved, mining, mech and elec, manufacturers and BC Area Coal Face engineers, the chair was normally Colin Ives. On one occasion the meeting assembled, everybody seated around the table waiting for Mr Ives to make his entrance, a good few minutes had passed before Colin appeared, he said nothing but walked around the table distributing an A4 document face down on the table in front of everyone in attendance, he then took his place and reaching under the table produced a beautifully made cardboard dice about six inches cube, he rolled it down the middle of the table and introduced it as the AM420 game of chance (or something similar). The rules were typed on the front of the papers before each of us, it read something along the lines of;
Attempt to start and run the AM420;
Shake a 1 ………………….. machine tripped on motor thermals
Shake a 2 ………………….. burst hose, machine tripped on low oil
Shake a 3 ………………….. machine will not start, sticking start button
Shake a 4 ………………….. machine will start but motor won’t hold in, faulty retaining relay
Shake a 5 ………………….. machine starts but will not haul, faulty servo valve
Shake a 6 ………………….. machine changes direction of travel of its own accord
To start and run the AM420 without problem;
.
.
.
.
.
.
Shake a 7 !!

[Mick]

Anyone remmber the pit overman at Newmarket,is name was Tim Pilchard or Pilcher.
Mick.

[spanker]

I remember as an apprentice in the mid 70s working under the umbrella of the survey dept. catching the gaffers draw at 10.00 and out for 13.00 having done some theodalite work in the roadways and surveying the face line.
I was then given the honour of venturing into the pit yard having worked out the tonnages for week ending and applying the score boards of weekly out put for all to be proud of, not very often our proud little pits flag wasn,t flying at the top of its mast. ;D ;D ;D ;D

[andyexplorer]

So come on !
Who got shot ! Why Where How and When